Kambakkht Ishq

Recently, at a Kambakkht Ishq press conference, Kareena Kapoor staged a walkout when a journo asked her if she would go nude for a film. Her contention was that she "commands respect" and doesn’t need to respond to such distasteful queries. Fair enough. But if she feels so strongly for women’s dignity, what made her accept a sexist film like KI? Not only is it one of the most offensive, gender-insensitive flicks of late but is also utterly blase and blatant about it.

The template is the age-old Taming of the Shrew and Shammi Kapoor variety ’60s romcoms like Junglee to which the Akshay Kumar brand of high stunts and low comedy have been added liberally. In the end, it doesn’t come together well. The war of the sexes, between a Hollywood stuntsman (Akshay) and a model-surgeon (Kareena), is all about calling each other "dog" and "bitch" and shutting each other up with some vigorous kissing.

KI’s target audience is the chauvinist male. So women here are showpieces for their gaze. Some, like Kareena (who models for a living and is a surgeon for some undefined higher cause) and Amrita (Arora) are mere clotheshorses, who display more skin than clothes. They put their best leg forward to give the has-been Bond girl Denise Richards a run for her bikini. Women are insulted throughout, yet the one who ill-treats them (Akshay) corners the sympathy.

Mad comedies are fine. But if sense of humour means slapstick routines of the cake-throwing and farting kind, I’d rather remain forever grim. The only comic scene that clicked was the Hollywood fraternity mistaking "Om mangalam mangalam" chant for India’s national anthem. Obviously, the film has been made for Akshay alone and he valiantly tries to enliven it. Like the sequence where he mumbles on the operating table, calling the nurse "mother" instead of "sister". The much-hyped Hollywood stars, like Stallone, are past their prime or inconsequential (i.e. Routh). Other actors, like Boman Irani and Javed Jaffrey, are mere props.